Warriors basketball focused on this season

EAST STROUDSBURG — Jeff Wilson doesn't look at what his East Stroudsburg University men's basketball team is facing this season as pressure.

JOE MIEGOC

EAST STROUDSBURG — Jeff Wilson doesn't look at what his East Stroudsburg University men's basketball team is facing this season as pressure.

Despite the fact that the Warriors are the defending Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champions and were picked by the conference coaches as the preseason favorite to win the PSAC East, Wilson has drilled home to his players that 2012-13 season is the only thing they can focus on.

"I don't look at it as pressure," said Wilson, who has a career record of 163-121 through the first three games of his 11th season at ESU. "To be very honest, no matter where you start at the beginning of the year as a coach you're trying to get your team to contend for a championship or contend for a playoff berth. I look at it as business as usual and I've tried to keep my guys grounded.

"It doesn't matter where you're picked. Our goal is to improve every day and put ourselves in position to be successful at the end of the year."

The Warriors did just that last March.

After knocking off Kutztown, the PSAC East's top seed, in the opening round, ESU started the second half of the PSAC semifinals with a 19-2 run on its way to beating Mercyhurst to reach the conference final for just the second time in school history. The Warriors went on to win their first title since 1990 with a 90-85 victory over rival West Chester, which earned them a trip to the NCAA tournament.

ESU will have a good chance to repeat thanks to a host of veterans returning from last winter's championship run.

The Warriors return three starters, including All-PSAC East first-team selections Duane Johnson and Terrance King, and 10 letter winners from last year's team.

"Right now we're looking at all of our experience as a good thing," Johnson said. "We have a whole lot of experience and we have the confidence that we can do it again."

Getting good play from its guards will be key for East Stroudsburg.

Gone is point guard Russell Graham, who averaged 12.3 points and 5.3 assists per game on his way to earning second-team All-PSAC East honors. Wilson said sophomore Will Brown, who set an ESU record by making 48 percent of his 3-pointers (48-for-100) as a freshman in 2010-11, won't work with the team until January as he continues to work back from a knee injury that cost him all of last season. In Graham's place are senior Blair Ramsey, who backed up Graham last year, and sophomore Matt Tobin, who played some point guard last season as well as off the ball.

"Blair Ramsey and Matt Tobin are a two-headed monster at the point-guard spot," Wilson said. "They're in expanded roles now, but they've been through it."

Also back is sophomore guard Whis Grant, who averaged 13.9 ppg to become the first freshman to lead an ESU team that made the postseason in scoring.

Johnson, who played for Penn Wood when it won the Class AAAA state championship in 2009, returns for his third year as a starter. The 6-foot-7 small forward is tied for most postseason games (nine) in school history and went over 1,000 points for his career in Saturday's 68-53 loss to USP.

In the frontcourt, ESU has one of the best athletes in the region in Terrance King, an East Stroudsburg North graduate. The senior saved his best play for the PSAC tournament when he scored 22.3 ppg, pulled down 11.3 rebounds per game and hit nearly 60 percent of his field goals (25-for-42) on his way to being named tournament MVP.

"Terrance is as good an athlete as there is in this conference by far," Wilson said. "In our run to the championship last year he wasn't in foul trouble in any of three games and because of that he was tournament MVP. We need him to stay on the floor and if he does he's as good as any inside guy in this region."

Last weekend's Shepherd Tournament was a perfect example of what Wilson is talking about.

In the season-opening 90-89 victory over Alderson-Broaddus, King played just 12 minutes while he battled foul trouble. After scoring just six points and pulling down one rebound in that game, King shined in a 97-79 victory over Shepherd with 28 points and 10 rebounds on his way to winning another tournament MVP award.

"I've just got to stop making stupid mistakes when I'm out on the court," said King, an All-PSAC East first teamer last year and the PSAC East Freshman of the Year in 2009-10. "I have to be more alert when I'm on the court because that's how I'll pick up those ticky-tack fouls. If I can stay on the floor we'll be alright."